


Draal the Dashing

by AstralPrince



Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Changeling Claire Nuñez, Crack Treated Seriously, Gen, Human Draal, Human Kanjigar, Jim has Excalibur, Kanjigar's A+ Parenting (Tales of Arcadia), Minor Aaarrrgghh/Blinky (Trollhunters), Parent Blinky (Trollhunters), Roleswap AU, Troll Barbara Lake, Troll Jim Lake Jr., Trollhunter Draal, mentor Jim
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-14 05:33:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28540383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AstralPrince/pseuds/AstralPrince
Summary: He wasn't smart, or knightly. He was just a punk who longed for his father's love. So when a weird glowing pocket watch decided that Draal should be the first human trollhunter, and a even weirder troll named Jim took him under his wing, he was not really thrilled. Even worse, Jim had a changeling ex coming after them to... do something. Draal wasn't sure what was going on, but he knew one thing: he was born to be a warrior.
Relationships: Draal & Jim Lake Jr. (Tales of Arcadia), Draal & Kanjigar (Tales of Arcadia), Draal/Nomura (Tales of Arcadia), Jim Lake Jr. & Kanjigar (Tales of Arcadia), Jim Lake Jr./Claire Nuñez
Comments: 6
Kudos: 31





	Draal the Dashing

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea when this started or why it even happened. One day I just had some notes written down and this is the result. I kinda like it, so let's have some fun. Just roll with it, I'm trying by best to make this a funny one because come on! The idea is crackpot level of stupid lol  
> Have fun!

A sword, brilliant shining blue, clashed with a crystalline staff that looked like it was filled with inky black smoke. The early morning air was crisp and clear, but also cold. Dew formed tiny pearls of water on every surface around, be it stone, grass or the two bitter enemies that fought underneath a concrete bridge. 

The shadows danced to the staff wielder's tune, while the sword commanded the light of day, and with it it's burning fury. It sliced through the hardened shadows that shot up from everywhere like the thorns of a dead rose.

Sparks flew as tempers rose. One of the fighters jumped up on the support beams of the bridge, meaning the other follow with a frustrated hiss.

"Just, give it to me!" 

"Never!" 

They danced with each other, over steel and around beams of sunlight. It was almost sunrise, and the one with the sword was getting nervous. Her time was running out. 

"This could have been so easy! So perfect! Urgh, why can't you just give me the amulet, trollhunter? Jim and I, we had something special. Why did you have to ruin it!?" 

"Oh no. You did that all by yourself. I care not for what you are, but you lied. To him, to me, to everyone." 

Said trollhunter was glaring daggers at her opponent. She held her sword, Daylight, above her shoulder for one more attack. For her last blow, the trollhunter was going all out. All or nothing. She just hoped her son would be able to forgive her. 

"You dared. You hurt my son, betrayed his- no, our trust. You infiltrated our home, gave away our location and secrets even after we welcomed you. Then you tried to kill me... Tell me, Claire, was it worth it?" She rasped.

With a mad dash and a flurry of red hair, trollhunter Bar-bruh-ra threw herself into combat for one last time. She knew this was it. Her wounds were deep, and the changeling who worked her way into her son's life and heart had beaten her. Finally, after almost 300 years Bar-bruh-ra "The Brilliant" would die. She was afraid, oh so afraid, and it broke her heart to leave her beloved baby boy behind, but she had to protect them. Gunmar would not be freed. Evil was not going to win. Jim would make sure that her successor would win the battles she could not. She trusted her son to train the poor soul the amulet picked next.

Daylight hissed past Claire's left cheek, leaving a small cut in it's place. It was a distraction, and enough to push the purple changeling backwards. With her out of the way, Bar-bruh-ra released the armor, grabbed her amulet and threw it as far as she could. Whoever's backyard it was going to land in, the human would protect it long enough for her son to retrieve. 

"Goodbye. Try not to hurt my son too much, will you?" Bar-bruh-ra said through tears as she let herself fall into the sunlight. 

"No! No, no, no, NO!" And little changeling Claire was crying too. 

When she looked up to see her lover's blue eyes shine back at her like melted glaciers, she knew she had to leave. After all, she had just broken his trust and killed his mother. What right did she have to stay? If the crackle of magical lightning around his sword was any indication... No. She had to go. Gemstone would not want her now. She had ruined everything, not that that would stop her from trying to fix it however. He had not attacked yet, so there was still hope for them. 

And suddenly Excalibur was sticking in the concrete wall right beside her, giving her right cheek a cut that mirrored the one his mother made earlier. Gemstone was mad after all. Gentle, kind Gemstone, her Gem, her Jim. She had just carelessly thrown out four decades of love and tender moments, and for what? Her hubris. However, she was not called "The Chthonic" for nothing. She could salvage her relationship for their love was true. It was probably the truest thing she had felt ever since her lady chose her as her champion.

"I'm so sorry, Jim. I'll fix this. I... I don't know what to do, but I'll make this right. I swear." She whispered, not caring if he heard it or not. 

Claire shifted to her human form and ran away to heal both her wounds and her broken heart. The amulet that she was supposed to grab was the last thing on her mind in that moment. All She knew what they she had to leave, now, and don't look back. She didn't stick around to hear her lover's anguished scream. She didn't need to see him mourn his mother. The mother she just took away from him.

* * *

Someone else was close by. This someone else was a human man, an adult in everything but attitude. His blonde hair was spiked up in a cyan tipped mohawk that showed the piercings in his ears, and he had enough of them. He also wore a nose ring that jingled with every step, and he was nervously playing with it while he stomped around.

So far the man's day had not been good. He woke up to find raccoons in his trash bin, got yelled at by his father and then he lost his keys. So, now he had to walk back to the twice damned bridge to look for them. He huffed in frustration. This would have been easier when he still had his bicycle, but that broke years ago.

Imitating his father's deep voice he started talking to himself, _"try to be nicer, Draal. You're scaring off customers, Draal. Why don't you have any friends, Draal?_ Argh!" 

He threw up his hands in pent up anger at the father who was never around. 

"Don't you tell me what to do, dad. I've been trying... that's something, right?" He looked up at the colorful morning sky. 

Reds, and pinks swirled together up there. The sun was high enough up to let streaks of light slice through the sky, like spears of lasers, Draal thought. It was far too early to be awake, and far too late to go back to bed, but the view was amazing. The clouds looked like a battlefield that day, and then a streak of bright, hot blue hit him right into the chest.

Draal fell backwards with a grunt. Even if he was surprised, he would never be found squeaking like some dog toy. Neither if he was alone, nor if he got hit by some glowing pocket watch. By the looks of it his attacker was one such watch, albeit a very strange looking one. Draal couldn't even figure out how to read the time on it. The arms of it whirred around unlike any watch he had ever seen.

"Broken, huh? No wonder someone threw this away." 

He pocketed it for now. He and his father liven and ran a junkyard, and this thing looked expensive. Tacky it may be, but it was probably worth quite a lot. If not, then it still looked like it was made from white gold and silver, so at least the material would earn him some pocket money. Maybe this surprise find would put Kanjigar in a better mood as well. Draal loved his father dearly, but recently he had been stressed a lot. He was working double shifts to pay endless bills, and while Draal was helping where he could his father insisted he stay in and focus on university. 

It took Draal a few more minutes to reach the bridge and start looking for his lost keys. There was something in the air that made the little hairs on his neck stand up. Some bad vibes lingered, urged him to go away, but he didn't turn around. Nobody was telling him what to do, supernatural or not. 

He found some rubble but he wasn't interested in a pile of stones. There were also broken branches and shredded bushes, which looked like some wild animals had crashed through them. Then there was a glimmer of gold on the floor.

"Jackpot." He cheered as he picked up his lost keys. 

Draal was careful to move the broken pocket watch into his other jacket pocket so that his keys wouldn't scratch it. He never noticed the pair of shining blue eyes that looked at him from the darkness of the canals. If he had, he probably would not have gone home, leading whatever was stalking him right to his house. He quickly got his motorcycle, his beloved bike, and raced off to get to his classes in time. His professor, a certain Mr Strickler, did not like tardiness. 

He really should have signed up for evening classes.

* * *

When Draal came home later that day he came home expecting an empty house. Nobody expected guests at 9PM after all. He thought he could snack on some jolly ranchers, watch a movie and then go to bed without any more incidents or fights with his father, but alas his day only got weirder. Kanjigar was on night shift at the local gas station and wouldn't be back before morning, so the thing on his couch couldn't possibly be him. However, it was too big to be anything else than Draal's mountain of a father. Then again, Kanjigar wasn't even close to being that hairy.

Draal grabbed a nearby pipe and crept closer to the thing on his couch. He held his head low and watched his feet. This wasn't his first fight, but he didn't want to take any chances. 

"Please, put that down. There's no need to play whack a troll." The figure from the couch spoke, making Draal scream like a little girl.

It was a he, and he was tall compared to Draal. Even though he was buff, the self proclaimed troll in his living room was looking stronger. Draal took notice of the double set of horns and the mean looking fangs on his head. His unwanted couch-stealing intruder looked more like the beast from beauty and the beast than a classic troll, but Draal didn't judge. If the monster wanted to be a troll then he would call him a troll. It wasn't like Draal knew his name anyway.

_**"Raaahr!"** _and Draal swung the pipe, unfortunately hurting his wrist in the process.

The huge troll just sighed and bent down to touch Draal's probably sprained wrist with a glowing crystal pen. It's milky center stone lit up for about two seconds, then dimmed to a ashen grey. It had healed Draal's wrist completely, which meant he could swing his makeshift weapon again. Only this time, much more hesitantly, without malice and more out of habit.

"Dude, drop the pipe." The troll said softly. 

He seemed more tired than annoyed. Draal could relate to that. Quite frankly, it calmed him down enough to drop the pipe and walk towards the other end of the couch. With a heavy sigh, Draal plopped down on the worn leather right beside the huge scruffy monster with horns and big teeth. 

"You're not Satan coming to steal my soul, are you?" He asked hoarsely. 

The troll shook his head, "no, not on Tuesdays. My name's Gemstone, and I'm a real troll, who lives under a bridge."

Draal snorted, "really? That's so cliche."

"Duh." He huffed, "call me Jim then. Half of Trollmarket does." 

After a bit of hesitancy, the human scoffed and just went with it, "I'm Draal Livingston. Now, what are you doing in my house?" 

Draal was already cringing as he thought about how much troll hair was already on the carpet, and how he had to clean that up before his dad came home. Kanjigar didn't want a dog, how was he going to cover up a huge scary troll in the house?

Jim stretched out with a yawn. He looked like he had spent a lot of time on said couch already, and as much as that pissed Draal off it also made him glow inside. Jim had been waiting for him to come home. That absolutely made the attention and praise starved man's day. Then he noticed that Jim was pointing at his jacket pocket.

"You... want the watch?" He asked confusedly, and a tiny bit disappointed.

"It's not a watch. It's a magical amulet. Daylight..." When Jim trailed off there was a heaviness to his voice that didn't sit right with Draal. 

Something was wrong, but he would not pry. Instead the human opted to ask something to distract the troll from whatever made him so gloomy, "why do you want it? It's broken...?"

"No, no...no came for you, Draal. Not the amulet. You are it's chosen, and you are bound to it for life now. You're our new trollhunter, and the first human trollhunter in the history the of the amulet. I came to congratulate you, and to take you under my wing. Things like me are going to come after you from now on. Scarier things, and much meaner. From today onwards I'm your mentor in all things troll and magic." Jim said.

He then dropped onto one knee and bowed respectfully. Draal didn't know what to make of it. He wanted to be someone, to be a hero that people looked up to. He longed for admiration and love. Now they he had his chance to get what he wanted, he hesitated. Draal was scared, not that he would ever show that. 

"I'll be back tomorrow night. You look like you need some time to think, trollhunter." Jim smoothly said without missing a beat, "if you need me, just yell my name in the canals. I will come to aid you." 

Then Jim rushed out of the small house with a grace so unreal for something of his size. It shocked Draal how fast the troll actually was, and then he even somersaulted over a trash pile. He wished to learn how to do that so badly now. Draal only caught a glimpse of silver and gold metal before Jim's blue fuzzy self vanished into the night. Strangely enough, he was happy. This was his chance to prove himself to his father, and to everyone else as well.

"Trollhunter, hm? Well... dad wants me to go out more often anyway. What could go wrong?" Draal mused to himself before he decided to go to bed. He completely forgot about the troll hair on the couch.

* * *

Hours later, when the first pinks of a new day already colored the sky, Kanjigar came home from a long night shift at the gas station. He dropped his keys onto the kitchen counter, grabbed himself a spoon and inhaled two bowls of cereal in under a minute. As tired as he was he decided to just nap on the couch. It was much closer than his bed, and just as comfortable. 

As he laid down he wondered what his son did to make the blanket feel so warm and cozy. As far as he could remember, they did not own a wool blanket. Then he opened his burning and tired eyes to see what must have been twenty cats worth of hair on his couch.

"Draal!? Get your sorry ass down here and explain this! NOW!"


End file.
